VOTE: GT Solo Assignment: September '07

Hey there,

It's time to vote for the solo that you liked the most from the September Solo Assignment :)

Here are the entries:

Seazer
equator
Superhuman
dethm3tal
Bar Chord Nick
light487
Vote for one of these in the poll above, and remember not to vote for yourself!

Seazer and Superhuman's links aren't working.. SoundClick was able to locate Superhuman's page with its automatic search but not seazer's.. not sure what's wrong with the links.

The following links are correct:
Superhuman

Seazer


I release now what it is you have done.. you have copied the text from the post, rather than the link locations.

EDIT: I didn't check my link because I don't have to listen to mine but that link is also broken. :) Here it is:

light487

Cool thanks I've changed them.

I voted for Superhuman.

First of all I'd like to say that everyone's solo for September were great. I was able to easily sit through all of them in one go and hear the individual styles separately. Anything I say is really just an opinion and/or a suggestion.. I'm not a guitar guru or an expert as you can plainly see from my previous posts around the forums.. but it was my understanding that the main point of these solo assignments was to learn something and share ideas and construction criticism.. anyway..

Equator:
Nice sweep picking at the start there and technically it was good however you didn't go anywhere with it.. it didn't appear to flow through to the middle section. The mid section has all the right notes (ie. none of them are "wrong" notes which sound bad) but I'm not really hearing a consistent melody or theme to the piece.. I mean, it's like one long jam with no real structure to it.. If that's what you were trying to achieve then that's just great but I felt it was lacking that structure or melody.

dethm3tal:
At the start you appear to be trying to some kind of melody with a response to that melody. Like one person plays a lick, then the other person plays the response lick.. as if the two instruments are having a conversation. At least that was my impression.. however it didn't seem to work.. and just ended up being a monologue rather than a dialogue, keeping with that same analogy. After that first bit though things really pick up and I can hear the phrasing and adequate structure you put into the track. I can hear a lot of different techniques being used there and they are all clear and accurate but it sounds like they are just slapped together one after the other with no real plan. From a technical point of view it's a great track but musically it is missing the contiguity (if that's even a word) of all the parts.. "...when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".

BCNick:
I love the tone you have with just the right amount of gain and chorus.. it really does compliment the backing track very nicely. Your solo has feeling of relaxing on a Saturday afternoon drinking beer... It's not too overdone or underdone in its entirety.. However there were a few odd notes in here and there.. whilst you are quick to resolve those strange notes, they are noticeable and that's the main thing that throws me, as a listener.

From a musical point of view it feels like you are changing the dominant and/or destination note in the wrong place.. don't ask me where the right place is.. I'm just trying to explain the feeling it gives me. Other than those 3 or 4 "odd" moments, the track is highly enjoyable to listen to.

Superhuman:
Very nice.. I've already commented on how much I liked you track when you first posted the final mix a week ago but I'll just throw some additional comments in here too. Great consistency throughout, great transition from intro to verse/chorus and then again to outro, great structure.. special mention goes to the transition to the sweep picking section at around 0:55.. however there's a couple of bits I listen to and think.. "hrmm.. that's really nice but it's lacking something." and I can't work out quite what it is.
Like that bit between 1:56 and 2:01 I mentioned in my previous post. And the bit between 1:10 and 1:26... I think you are trying to slow it down a bit so that it's a bit more emotional.. I think it could work but there's no rests in there.. I think if you added some rests.. to allow the guitar to "take a breath" or the listener to digest the shorter pieces of music more readily.. When a guitar plays a solo, it's like it has now become the lead/singer rather than the accompanying instrument. Have you ever tried to sing more than a few seconds without taking a breath for a 2 hour gig?.. Once the guitar becomes the lead instrument it needs to act like it.. I hope you know what I mean.. lol.. I am starting to get confused.. lol..

seazer:
Your solo is very energetic without being overly fast and for the most part is enjoyable to listen to. You seemed to stay in the same scale progression over and over again.. so even though you added lots of flourishes to it.. it still sounded like the same scale progression over and over again. The tone was great except for that odd sounding change at around 0:31.. The tone works just as well but the change to it needs something to help with the transition... with the change between 1:05 and 1:07, it's like I was saying with Superhuman's comment.. you've allowed your guitar to take a breath for the next section. The 0.5 second pause of silence at the 0:31 mark just doesn't sound as polished as it could have been.

I voted for light487 (not becuase he voted for me!)

In my opinion, everyone did a good job based on their levels of experience. My second choice was Equator with BarChordNick running very close too.

I chose Light's because of the overall structure of the solo. Nice flow from start to finish, a couple of parts were a bit off but overall there was a definite theme with a beginning middle and end. Tone and recording quality were my only real gripes but they come down to gear and personal taste anyway. Nicely done Luke!

Originally Posted by: light487
Superhuman:
Like that bit between 1:56 and 2:01 I mentioned in my previous post...

And the bit between 1:10 and 1:26...

Hey Light, re the above sections, my favourite part of the entire song is actually the 1:56 to 2.01 bit :) It just struck a chord as being unusual and has an emotional ring to it when I listen back.

I hear you re the 1.10 to 1.26 bit. The more I listen to it the more I know how it should sound. I recorded the whole solo in one sitting and made it up as I went along. It was a very easy piece to play along to IMO, my hat goes off to Equator for some good chord selections. Anyway, thanks for the vote and thanks for taking the time to comment.

Originally Posted by: SuperhumanI voted for light487 (not becuase he voted for me!)

In my opinion, everyone did a good job based on their levels of experience. My second choice was Equator with BarChordNick running very close too.

I chose Light's because of the overall structure of the solo. Nice flow from start to finish, a couple of parts were a bit off but overall there was a definite theme with a beginning middle and end. Tone and recording quality were my only real gripes but they come down to gear and personal taste anyway. Nicely done Luke!

Thanks for the feedback and the vote.. your $50.00 cheque will be in the post shortly.. lol.. but seriously.. Which bits did you find odd? I'd like to know so I can analyse it.. also what was it about the tone you felt was a poor choice for this track, taking into account the style I was trying to produce..

I always have such a battle with tone.. I know a lot of it comes from your own hands rather than effects and all that.. but yeh.. if there's something I can do that I am not doing, I would like to know so I can fix it.

For that track I had:
Jordan Stratocaster-copy with EMG active single-coil pickups, playing mainly on the bridge pickup. My pickup system also has an EMG guitar expander and presence control (at least I think that's what they do.. lol). So I have that plugged directly into my PC via a StealthPlug. The sequencer I am using came with the StealthPlug, it is called Tracktion. I used two plugins on the guitar track.. the first was Amplitube 2.0 running a modified preset.. basically I added delay.. The other plugin is a basic chorus but I think the chorus did the opposite of what I wanted.. it actually made the sound thinner.. anyway.. that's what I had setup..

I also change the backing track subtly.. I played with some panning and volume automation as well as creating an extra track of the last part (where I start the tapping again) to add a strange sort of duality to the backing track.. so that could have affected my guitar tone as well..

I can't decide between Superhuman and Light487;

Seazer: I liked your playing throughout your track, but it all seemed repetitive to me, sorry ^_^

Equator: I also loved your playing throughout your track, but it all seemed like there was no real playing, it was like you were playing the notes in the scale just to play them...Like you sweep and tap 1000000x better than I can, but I just felt like you didn't really use any of that to your advantage, you didn't really push yourself, you know?

BCNick: Again, lovely tone(as on all your tracks). I just didn't feel like you tried to really push yourself at all; I was sort of hoping you would venture a little more, make this track stick out from all your other ones; The playing is great and there are parts where the runs make me feel somewhat sad ^_^ You have a tone that is a million times better than mine you play really really smooth, but on the whole this didn't sound all that different from a lot of your other tracks;

Light487: Dude your tapping parts were really neat; my only complaint is that your guitar sounded really...screechy? I can't explain it much better than that, it just sounded too high pitched, like it was probably just a recording thing, but on the whole your "tone" was what crushed the track at points; On the whole though it was a good track, the tapping was really cool and the outro playing was great!(thanks for the review btw ^_^)

Superhuman: OH MY GOD Your track was great; Favorite part of the whole track for me is 0:53 to 1:26; those two sections of the song are great! The chunk from 0:53 to 1:06 or so is beautiful and then the chunk from 1:10 to 1:26 is really cool sounding, stood out in the song. From there on you get a really cool bluesy sound which I loved. You are an amazing player and your track gets my vote this month

Michael

Thanks guys for the comments. Either good or bad…I take them. :)
My vote goes to Superhuman, the best solo of all. Hands down!

my bad with the links :o

hee hee.. I'm still listening to my solo.. if only I had a decent tremolo/whammy-bar system.. I could have really done something with those harmonic rests..

Originally Posted by: equatorThanks guys for the comments. Either good or bad…I take them. :)
My vote goes to Superhuman, the best solo of all. Hands down!

Thanks for the vote man, I really liked the chord changes in your backing track, made it very easy to come up with the solo. Re you're own track, I like it, I have to agree with the others though... it started out with a major wow factor with those lovely arpeggios which kind of set you up for a fall if they weren't either executed again or topped with something more impressive later in the piece. The opening few bars of the solo after the arps had a very nice theme to them and I think you could have capitalised on that and developed it more by reintroducing a more complicated version as a hook followed by a technical section featuring arpeggios and fast runs. Anyway, it kept my attention right from start to finish and I did like it - just letting your know!